DID AMERICA'S REVOLT START WITH REGICIDE? 8/8: The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689 Hardcover – by Jonathan Healey (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 6 July 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
1650 REGICIDE
https://www.amazon.com/Blazing-World-History-Revolutionary-1603-1689/dp/0593318358
The seventeenth century was a revolutionary age for the English. It started as they suddenly found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and it ended in the shadow of an invasion by the Dutch. Under James I, England suffered terrorism and witch panics. Under his son Charles, state and society collapsed into civil war, to be followed by an army coup and regicide. For a short time—for the only time in history—England was a republic. There were bitter struggles over faith and Parliament asserted itself like never before. There were no boundaries to politics. In fiery, plague-ridden London, in coffee shops and alehouses, new ideas were forged that were angry, populist, and almost impossible for monarchs to control.
But the story of this century is less well known than it should be. Myths have grown around key figures. People may know about the Gunpowder Plot and the Great Fire of London, but the Civil War is a half-remembered mystery to many. And yet the seventeenth century has never seemed more relevant. The British constitution is once again being bent and contorted, and there is a clash of ideologies reminiscent of when Roundhead fought Cavalier.
The Blazing World is the story of this strange, twisting, fascinating century. It shows a society in sparkling detail. It was a new world of wealth, creativity, and daring curiosity, but also of greed, pugnacious arrogance, and colonial violence
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| 0:00.0 | Rural communities are being squeezed from every side. |
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| 0:13.0 | Farmers and small businesses are reeling from the trade war, |
| 0:18.0 | and now Project 2025 is back, with a plan to finish what Elon Musk started. |
| 0:24.8 | Trump and the Republicans won rural votes, then turn their backs on us. |
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| 0:52.4 | facing rural America. |
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| 0:58.0 | I'm John Bachelorette Professor Jonathan Healy, whose wonderful new book is filled with stories and imaginary moments |
| 1:13.7 | that we now can visit from the 21st century and say, so that's where John Locke came from. |
| 1:20.2 | That's where an understanding of government representing the people came from. |
| 1:24.4 | And that's where trouble comes from when a man, James II, the younger |
| 1:31.3 | brother of Charles II, decide somewhere in the 1660s to convert to Catholicism, perhaps |
| 1:37.7 | surrounded by Catholics on the mainland, knowing that if he was ever to ascend to the throne, |
| 1:43.1 | this would introduce contra-temp again into his native land. |
| 1:48.0 | Well, here it is. The moment that we can anticipate, there is rumors that James has converted, but with the death of his brother, this is in the 1680s, the death of his brother James I first becomes the king of England and he's been |
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